Journey Mapping 101 (March 6, 2020)

One of our articles introduces us to the world of journey mapping, as explained in Sarah Gibbons’ article “Journey Mapping 101”. A journey map is a visualization of the process that a person goes through in order to accomplish a goal There are 5 key components that makes for a good map

    1. Actor - The actor is the persona or user who experiences the journey. The actor is who the journey map is about
    2. Scenario + Expectations  - The scenario describes the situation that the journey map addresses and is associated with an actor’s goal or need and specific expectations.
    3. Journey Phases - the different high-level stages in the journey that provide organization for the rest of the information in the journey map (actions, thoughts, and emotions).
    4. Actions, Mindsets, and Emotions - behaviors, thoughts, and feelings the actor has throughout the journey and that are mapped within each of the journey phases.
                Actions are the actual behaviors and steps taken by users. This component is not meant to be a granular step-by-step log of every discrete interaction. Rather, it is a narrative of the steps the actor takes during that phase.

                Mindsets correspond to users’ thoughts, questions, motivations, and information needs at different stages in the journey. Ideally, these are customer verbatims from research.
                Emotions are plotted as single line across the journey phases, literally signaling the emotional “ups” and “downs” of the experience.
    5. Opportunities  - insights gained from mapping; they speak to how the user experience can be optimized.

There are also different map concepts that the author explores in her piece that are very similar to a journey map. There’s an experience map, which is a much broader account that is used for understanding a general human behavior; in contrast, a customer journey map is specific and focused on a particular business or product. Service blueprint visualize the relationships between different service components (such as people or processes) at various touchpoints in a specific customer journey. A user story map is used to plan features or functionalities.  The typical format of a user story is a single sentence: “As a [type of user], I want to [goal], so that [benefit].” For example, “As a checking account holder, I want to deposit checks with my mobile device, so that I don’t have to go to the bank.”

The author states that “The benefits of journey maps are two-fold. First, the process of creating a map forces conversation and an aligned mental model for the whole team. Fragmented understanding is a widespread problem in organizations because success metrics are siloed; it is no one’s responsibility to look at the entire experience from the user’s standpoint. This shared vision is a critical goal of journey mapping, because, without it, agreement on how to improve customer experience would never take place. Second, the shared artifact resulting from the mapping can be used to communicate an understanding of your user or service to all involved.” She sums it up  by stating that journey maps “are effective mechanisms for conveying information in a way that is memorable, concise, and that creates a shared vision.”

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